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[0:00] Let's turn again to the chapter we read, John's Gospel, chapter 7, and we're not going to read it from verse 37 to the end. It's quite a large section.

[0:11] Just to read the start of it, On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And so on.

[0:23] I want us to consider this whole section. Now, the verse begins by saying, On the last day of the feast. And there's always a last day. There's a last day to everything.

[0:36] And sometimes there's a last day to good things. There's a last day to bad things. And I know that sometimes when we're, say, for instance, you're on a holiday and you're really enjoying the holiday and it's come to the last day, you're saying, oh, man, I wish we could get a few more days.

[0:54] And then there are other times we're so thankful when the last day comes. I know the young folk are going through their exams just now and I think back and I still remember the feeling of when it was the last day of the exams.

[1:10] The sense of relief. Glad that's passed. So that's how life is at our times. We're glad of the last day. Sometimes we're sad about the last day.

[1:23] Well, here we have the last day of the feast. And it's one of the great statements of the Lord Jesus. And again, when you think of the last day, it's one of the things that we will find very hard to understand about glory is that there won't be last days.

[1:41] It is perpetual glory. Because our world is so governed by our 24-hour period of our days and our nights. But we're told that there shall be no night there.

[1:53] It's going to be a totally different type of order. And there won't be a last day of anything bad. It will be everything will always be good. And it's very hard for us just to lay hold upon how transformational that is going to be.

[2:09] The very thought of what glory is. But here is this feast, the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. It was known by both names. And it was held from the 15th to the 21st or the 22nd.

[2:26] From the 15th to the 21st of the 7th month. And that would be our October. It was the time when the harvest was over. And it was a great time of celebration for the Jews.

[2:39] Because in this Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, what they did was, there was a great, they would be congregating in Jerusalem. There would be a lot of strangers, a lot of visitors, a lot of pilgrims.

[2:51] And they would build little leafy shelters or little leafy booths. And they would have them on the streets, in the marketplace, on the flat roof, tops of houses, all over.

[3:04] And it was a time for reminding them of their journey through the wilderness and of God helping them and taking them through. And so it was also a time where they were thanking God for the harvest.

[3:18] The toil, the labor was over. And it was a time of celebration. It was a great time. So this is what we find here at this particular time. And it's interesting that one of the pictures that were given in Revelation of the saints in glory with palm branches in their hands.

[3:38] And it might even be a little glimpse, a little reminder of the very time of celebrating all that God has done, of all the toil, of all the labor, of all these things now in the past.

[3:52] But anyway, the Lord of the harvest will gather every single individual that has trusted in him from the four corners of this earth.

[4:04] Not one will be missing. They will all be gathered in from north, south, east, and west into the eternal joy of the Lord. So we find Jesus who's come to the feast.

[4:14] And here he is in the temple on the very last day. And he cries out in order for everybody to hear. But this moment is actually quite an extraordinary moment because it is a moment of fulfillment of prophecy.

[4:29] Because if we had gone back to the prophecy of Haggai, we find that the Lord came to the prophet Haggai. And the issue that the Lord was bringing before the people at that time was what they weren't doing.

[4:47] Because Haggai is prophesying to the exiles that have returned from Babylon, from the captivity. And when they were released from Babylon, of course many of them were new, they were born in captivity, but there were some who had, it was a 70-year period, the exile.

[5:08] There were some of them who had been taken when they were young into exile and now they were back again. And initially there was incredible excitement and thrill to be back in their own land.

[5:23] And they began to build, rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. But they had begun to slacken off. They began to become more concerned about their own projects, their own buildings.

[5:38] And so Haggai was sent to sort of stir them up again to get going with the rebuilding of the temple. And the problem with some of the older people was this, that they could remember the old temple, which was the most magnificent structure.

[5:57] It was absolutely amazing building. And of course it had been destroyed, completely flattened. And as they were looking at this new temple being built, they were saying to themselves, oh, this is nothing.

[6:14] The glory of this is absolutely nothing compared to the glory of the former temple. And so they were very downhearted about it all. But Haggai comes with a message to them.

[6:27] And this is what he says. God is saying this, the latter glory of this temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.

[6:41] And in this place I will give peace. Now, what's remarkable about this prophecy is that it tells us in the book of Haggai that the very date that the Lord spoke to Haggai to go and to stand at the temple and to address the people was on the 21st day of the seventh month.

[7:07] Roll forward 500 plus years, and here is Jesus who is the Prince of Peace, who is the God-Man who has come to bring peace on earth.

[7:21] Here he is on that very same day all these centuries later. And he is fulfilling that prophecy because the Lord says, in this place I will give peace.

[7:36] And here stands Jesus 500 plus years later to the very day. And he is, he is the man of peace.

[7:47] He is the Prince of Peace. It's a pinpoint prophetic accuracy. And so we find that Jesus on this last day, and this was a great day, this was the final day, and at this particular time there would be the pouring of the water from the pools of Siloam.

[8:06] It was a hive of activity. It was really busy. And Jesus, as often Jesus did, used and illustrated from what was taking place around him.

[8:17] And there's the water being poured out from the pools of Siloam. He uses the illustration of water. And he gives this cry. It wasn't just, he didn't just speak. Often Jesus spoke.

[8:29] But on this occasion, it tells us, Jesus stood up and cried out. There was urgency in the cry. There would be emotion in the cry.

[8:40] There would be pity in the cry. There would be pleading in the cry. It would have been a powerful moment. And he's saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

[8:54] I've got to ask the question before we move on. Have you come? Have you come, or are you still stalling? Are you still bargaining with God?

[9:05] Are you still holding back? Are there things still in the way? Or have you come? Because you see, while the cry is being made still today, the authority of God grants us that we are able to bring out this beautiful, wonderful gospel to people.

[9:24] There's going to come a day, there'll be a last day, for this invitation to be given as well. Thankfully, it's not today. But it might be tomorrow.

[9:35] We don't know. So it is imperative that we listen to the cry of Jesus, where he's saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and to drink.

[9:48] And you'll notice how wide that invitation is. Because it says, if anyone, anyone. There are no exclusion zones here. It doesn't matter a person's racial identity.

[10:00] It doesn't matter a person's social standing. It doesn't matter a person's culture. It doesn't matter a person's religion or creed. It doesn't matter. There's nothing indicated.

[10:12] It's for everybody. This invitation goes out to all, to everybody who hears it. Everybody who hears, this is a cry that is issuing out from the Savior.

[10:24] If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. It's an invitation to the anxious. If you're today and you're anxious in life, and you find that life is becoming challenging and difficult, and you're not coping, Jesus is saying, look, come to me.

[10:45] I will give you a peace. I will give you a, I will bring a composure and a calmness into your life because of who I am. When Jesus gives us his peace, it's not like that he has compartments with different things, that there's peace and there's joy and there's things.

[11:04] When Jesus gives peace, it's giving of himself through the Spirit because he is all these things. So it is a communication by the Spirit of who Jesus is to ourselves.

[11:18] And he brings a purpose and a meaning into life. You might be finding life absolutely empty just now. And there have been times when life has been fulfilling, times you've been excited in life, times you've felt satisfied, but it's not there.

[11:38] Because you see, it's like everybody's given a bucket at the beginning of life, and there you go, fill that bucket with whatever. Well, if we do not have Christ, it's like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it.

[11:55] And you know that's an impossibility. You try and fill a bucket full of water and there's a hole. It doesn't matter how often it reaches up to the brim, it continues to seep out.

[12:08] And that's how it is in life. Because there are times, there are periods you may feel satisfied, your things are going well. But if all that we look for is in this life, it'll never ultimately satisfy.

[12:23] It can satisfy for a while, but then there's always something else. It's easier to catch the wind and keep it than find our full satisfaction and fulfillment just in life itself.

[12:36] And that's why Jesus is saying, look, you need me. And it's obvious because there's, as the old people used to say, there's a God-shaped void in the heart of every person. Because God made us.

[12:48] That's the way he made us. There's a God-shaped void. And it can, we can never get that ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction until the Lord takes over in our life.

[13:01] He's the missing piece. And once he's there, it all changes. And may I say, if there's anybody here today who might be in the bracket of the careless and indifferent, and you might be saying to yourself, oh, well, I wouldn't be in church if I'm careless and indifferent.

[13:16] Well, thank the Lord you are. And don't stop coming. Because this is where so many people come to faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

[13:28] But you see, you can, you can come to church out of habit, out of duty. That's good. Please don't change that habit or duty. But that's as far as it goes.

[13:42] And the preaching and all that, it just flies over your head. In one ear, out the other. It's out there. It's got no relevance. It's for other people. It's not for you. No, it's for you.

[13:53] It's for you today. This is the word of the Lord. And he's speaking to each and every one of us this day. And he's saying to you, you're going in the wrong direction.

[14:05] The road you're leading on will bring you to death, eternal death. So you see, Christ is our only answer in life. So Jesus gives this great cry, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

[14:21] And of course, specifically, he's saying, if anyone thirsts. And that, above all, is thirsting for gospel blessing. Thirsting for Christ.

[14:32] And maybe there's somebody here today, and you are saying that, you know this, I would love to be a Christian. And I've wanted to be a Christian for a long time. Well, come.

[14:44] Come to Christ. If you're, naturally speaking, if you're really thirsty, what do you do? You don't start telling people, oh, you know, I'm really, really thirsty.

[14:57] You don't speak to yourself saying, oh, I would give anything for a drink. I'm so thirsty. No, you get up and you go to where you can get something for that thirst. And so it is today, today, if you are thirsty, if you're wanting Christ, go to him.

[15:15] Don't just sit there saying, well, you know, that's the way I am. Do something about it. Go to him and say, Lord, come into my heart, come into my life. And you know this, the Lord will not refuse.

[15:27] If you're serious about it, he will not refuse. Sometimes the journey takes a wee while, but guaranteed, if you're sincerely asking the Lord, he will come in.

[15:39] And he will give that, he will give that, as it says, whoever believes him, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Just as Jesus was saying to the woman at the well of Samaria, I know that the water that he would give would be spring up, this water show of everlasting life, that the satisfaction that you will get in Christ Jesus surpasses nothing else.

[16:09] Guaranteed. It grants you a peace, a purpose, a meaning, a hope. Do you know, there's so much despair in this life. So many people today, they feel utterly hopeless.

[16:22] Look around and they say, what's the point? When the Lord comes into your life, it changes your perspective. It changes. And even if you're looking at things, and they are often grim, there's still a hope burning in your heart for better days.

[16:38] You know how it's going to end. And that's important. How things end, that's really important. And if you're a Christian, you know it's going to end well.

[16:50] So I would urge you today that you would go to the Lord who will give to you like nobody else can. Now, Jesus goes on to say, for as yet, he's talking in verse 39, now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

[17:09] For as yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not glorified. Now, that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit wasn't ministering at this particular time.

[17:21] Right throughout the whole of the Old Testament, from the very beginning, the Holy Spirit was at work. And the Holy Spirit enabled every Old Testament believer to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[17:34] And they saw the Christ who was to come in the same way as they looked forward and believed in the Christ to come. We look back and we believe in the Christ who has come.

[17:46] But the Holy Spirit was working. But what Jesus is talking about here is that the Holy Spirit was going to come in a new power after he had gone to the cross, died, risen, and ascended into heaven.

[18:01] And we see the display of that in the book of Acts in Pentecost. And we live in these times where we live in these particular times. And so, from verse 40 then to verse 44, we find there's a real division among the people.

[18:18] some are persuaded that he is Christ. But others are saying, no, he can't be the Christ because he's a Galilee man. He's from Galilee.

[18:30] And the Bible makes it very clear that the Messiah, the Christ, is to be of the seed of David. And David was a Bethlehem boy. David came from Bethlehem.

[18:41] And so the Scripture is quite clear that the Messiah, that the Christ, is to come from Bethlehem. He's to be born in Bethlehem. And see the trouble that little knowledge causes.

[18:56] Everybody, or not everybody, but most of the people were absolutely persuaded that Jesus was a Nazareth person. Born and bred. Well, we know he wasn't.

[19:09] He was brought up in Nazareth. But he wasn't born there. If they had taken the trouble to really find out where was Jesus born, it would have changed everything.

[19:21] The chief priests, the Pharisees, the scribes, all these people who were opposed to Christ and saw him as the ultimate blasphemer, if only they had taken the trouble to go and find out the facts.

[19:35] Find out where Jesus was born. that would have changed their whole perspective. But they didn't. Because they assumed that they had seen him grow up from the time as a little baby in Nazareth that he was born there.

[19:53] And you know, so often in life problems arise because we don't know the facts. We assume we do. We don't know the bottom line.

[20:03] We put two and two together and often arrive at three. And there are problems in the home, problems in families, problems at work, problems in the community, problems in the church because people haven't got all the facts.

[20:20] And you see the huge problem that was caused here just because of this. So there was this division among the people. But there was one group above all that were utterly and altogether convinced that Christ was the ultimate blasphemer and that was the chief priests, the Pharisees.

[20:36] They were on one mission he has to be destroyed. He is the ultimate blasphemer. And so they send people out to arrest him. Verse 45 tells us they came back without Christ.

[20:51] Why did you not bring him in? Verse 46. No one ever spoke like this man. What a truth they spoke.

[21:02] Instead of them arresting Christ, Christ's words arrested them. they fell under the spell maybe I shouldn't put it that way of the word of Christ because they saw they saw this isn't an ordinary man.

[21:16] Remember in Matthew's gospel it tells us something similar. They were astonished at his doctrine because he taught us one having authority not as a scribe. And of course the words of Jesus Christ are different to any other words.

[21:32] Because when we think who is Jesus Christ? Who is the Son of God? Well we're told very simply he is the creator of this world. The God man before he took human nature he was at the very center of the creation.

[21:50] His word brought everything into being. the great galaxies the sun the moon the planets great mountain ranges the sea animals humans because we're told in the scripture that for by him were all things created.

[22:10] No wonder they said nobody ever spoke like him. His words had power they had meaning they had reality and these are the same words that we are dealing with today the words of Jesus Christ.

[22:25] He has power over the world of the demonic. Satan has to submit to the authority and the power of Christ. He has power over death over spiritual death and that's the way we are by nature we're all born that's that's the way we're naturally formed but we're spiritually dead.

[22:49] That's why we can sit in church for years. Hearing preaching that is condemning our soul to hell and it means absolutely nothing or we can hear the sweet invitations of Jesus promising us endless glory and it still means nothing.

[23:10] It just drifts by because we're spiritually dead and only the Lord can bring spiritual life and every one of you today who has come to faith it is because of the word of Christ.

[23:26] He has spoken into your heart. You received him. You believed. You cried to him. You called to him. You believed. And so he is the one who brings life.

[23:39] Brings life spiritually and we know that he has power over death even physically as we saw in the raising of Lazarus from the dead and Jairus' daughter.

[23:51] But nobody ever spoke like Jesus. And how wonderful that is. When you and I when we sin when we're aware of how far short we've gone sin can often trouble us.

[24:10] But you know rather than drive us away it should drive us to Christ. They meant it by way of condemnation but what a truth they spoke. This man receives sinners and eats with them.

[24:23] I love that. That's a Jesus who today is calling you. He receives sinners. Wouldn't it be awful if it said he receives those who have reformed.

[24:36] Those who have turned their back upon. Those who have tried their best to sort themselves out and doesn't say anything of that. Receive sinners just as you are.

[24:49] Warts and all. All the baggage of the past. He says come on I'll receive you. There's nothing to stop you. So it's important to realize this.

[25:03] And he is the one who forgives. I even I am he that blotteth without thy transgressions and will not remember thine iniquities. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus is the one who says to us today when we're troubled and burdened in life he says come to me all you who are laboring and burdened and I'll give you rest.

[25:26] To all of your sorrowing maybe today your hearts are sore I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you. No man ever spoke like this man. In conclusion we see one thing here amongst all the voices condemning Jesus there was one lone voice a voice of reason and that voice of reason was the voice of Nicodemus.

[25:54] Nicodemus verse 50 who had gone to him before and who was one of them that is one of the Pharisees said to them does our Lord judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does.

[26:07] Nicodemus is trying to say look we've got to hear what Jesus Nicodemus is here in the defense of Jesus. Now Nicodemus was on a journey and we've got to remember that for different people some people will walk into church and they're converted like that other people the journey takes a while took a while for Nicodemus and Nicodemus remember the night when he had to go to see of course it was under the cover of darkness because if the Pharisees discovered that he was identifying with Jesus he'd have been thrown out and a lot of the Pharisees were were sort of drawn to Jesus but they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God so they didn't want to lose their privileges they didn't want to lose their honor but Nicodemus he went to Jesus under the cover of darkness remember Jesus said you must be born again you're a student of the law

[27:09] Nicodemus do you not understand these things and Nicodemus didn't but the work had begun and here's now a wee while forward and Nicodemus is now trying to speak on behalf of Jesus a wee while later we will find that Nicodemus comes fully out on the side of Jesus more so than Peter more so than James Nicodemus remember joined Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus he was ready to lose all that he had all the privileges all the honor in this world because he had completely sided with Jesus I hope you're on a journey might be taking a while but I pray you're on that journey because if you are on that journey it will end well you make sure that you're seeking Jesus and that you listen to his call today where he's saying come to me let us pray

[28:11] Lord our God we pray to bless us we give thanks for your word a challenge to us an invitation to us and we pray that we will have the grace to obey what you're requiring of us grant us because help us to realize that we cannot our shells but that we can come to you and truly seek and you will indeed do the work you will do what's necessary for us bless us we pray part us with your blessing take us to our home safely forgiving sin in Jesus name amen we're going to conclude singing in psalm 63 the 63rd psalm and we're going to sing it's a scottish psalter and we're going to sing verses 1 to 5 psalm 63 scottish psalter verses 1 to 5 lord thee my god i rarely seek my soul doth thirst for thee my flesh longs in a dry parched land wherein no waters be that i thy power may behold and brightness of thy face as i have seen thee heretofore within thy holy place since better is thy love than life my lips thee praise shall give i in thy name will lift my hands and bless thee while i live 1 to 5 psalm 63 lord thee my god i rarely seek for thee my god i rarely seek my soul doth thirst for thee my flesh longs in a dry!

[30:05] thy far land where in no waters be that i thy power may behold and brightness of thy face as i have seen thee here to forth within thy holy place since better is thy love than life my lips thee praise shall give!

[30:58] I in thy name will lift my hands and bless thee while I live even as with marrow and with fat my soul shall fill it thee then shall my mouth with joyful lips sing praises unto thee now may the grace mercy and peace of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forever more amen I'll go to the door on my right that that!

[32:15] that Thank you.

[32:46] Thank you.